Kleptomania
by comedyandtragedy-xiii
Summary: Roxas was a kleptomaniac, not a thief. There was a difference he said, and that was that thieves stole for unnecessary personal gain. And Roxas never stole for a reason like that. yaoi AkuRoku
1. The Jewelry Box

**Chapter One: The Jewelry Box **

Roxas did not like to think that he was a thief. Thief, he said, was a derogatory word used to describe people who stole things, because for some reason people seemed to think that people who stole things were bad. Roxas disagreed with this. People who stole things weren't necessarily bad, he said. People steal for different reasons. And not everyone who steals is looking to break into a cash register or hold up a bank or hi-jack a car. Some people just steal to feed themselves or someone else, and some people steal for other people to save their own skin and some people just steal for fun. These people weren't necessarily bad, Roxas said, but misunderstood, because society never gave them a chance.

Therefore, when people accused Roxas of being thief, Roxas would calmly reply that he was not a thief, but a kleptomaniac.

Generally, being a kleptomaniac and being a thief are considered the same thing, but Roxas argued that they were different. A kleptomaniac was a universal word that could be used to nicely describe anybody who stole and he insisted that people ought to be called this instead of thieves, because it made much more sense. A thief was someone looking for unnecessary personal gain; that was why they held up convenience stores and gas stations for money. Kleptomaniacs shouldn't have to be grouped in the same category as thieves, because kleptomaniacs didn't steal for unnecessary personal gain, which was why the term thief was derogatory term and ought to be corrected.

"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard," Hayner snorted as the other blonde finished telling him his theory. "You're a fucking thief, Roxas. Just admit it, and cut the kleptomaniac bullshit."

Roxas frowned. "Hayner, I told you, I'm not a thief."

"You steal for personal gain, don't you?"

"Yes, but not _unnecessary_ personal gain."

"Then why the hell did you steal that lava lap from that one guy's trunk yesterday? What do you need a lava lamp for?" Hayner asked.

"I need a lamp so I can have a light source in my bedroom at night," Roxas explained.

"But did it have to be a lava lamp?"

"No, but that was the first lamp I saw. So you see, it wasn't for unnecessary personal gain," the blonde said patiently, as though explaining it to a child. "I'm not a thief. I'm a kleptomaniac."

"Yeah, well as long as the world thinks they mean the same thing you're fucking screwed," Hayner said flatly. He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. "So you'd better get used to being called a thief, Roxas, 'cause that's what everyone here thinks you are."

Roxas frowned, crossing his arms. "Well, they shouldn't."

"But the do so shut the fuck up and deal." The brown-eyed boy exhaled a mouth full of smoke into the blonde's face. He coughed, gagging.

"What the hell was that for?!"

"For being a whiner and making my head hurt with your fancy words. Seriously, kleptomaniac? It's a stupid word." He took another drag and exhaled slowly. "You may be smart Roxas, but no one else around here even graduated high school. So try not to confuse us with your fancy vocabulary."

"I didn't graduate high school either," Roxas pointed out.

"Well then how the hell do you know all those big words?"

"I read."

"Readings for suckers."

"Reading is a key aspect of life and anyone who doesn't do enough of it is doomed to a miserable fate," Roxas said.

"Bullshit."

"It's true. You should really try picking up a book sometimes, Hayner; you'd be surprised at how good they can be."

"The only book I'm ever going to pick up is the mechanical handbook of my car," Hayner said flatly, throwing the cigarette onto the ground and stomping it out with his foot. "Now c'mon, Seifer's offering a forty percent share to whoever can steal the jewelry box from that one old lady on Brooklyn Street."

"So?"

"So I wanna get that money and I need your help," Hayner said. "It's a two-man job."

The blonde groaned. "Hayner, you know I don't like stealing from people for other people."

"Like I give a flying fuck. Listen, if you help me bag this one I'll buy you dinner every Saturday for the next month." He began fishing through his pockets for something. "So you gonna help me or am I gonna have to convince you?"

* * *

Half an hour and a bloody nose later Roxas found himself standing on the corner of Brooklyn and Parmenter, watching the small house with pristine white siding and baby blue shutters. He didn't like this; the neighborhood was too clean. The chances of them being able to pull off stealing this old lady's jewelry box were very slim, and Roxas didn't like slim chances like this. They could get caught and they wouldn't be able to get away, surrounded on all sides by these little houses with their perfect lawns and perfect gardens and pastel window shutters. He wanted to leave. 

"You can leave as soon as we get the fucking jewelry box," Hayner hissed as he dragged Roxas towards the house. "Come on, it's the middle of the fucking night and it's one little old lady against the two of us. How hard can it be?" He looked around to see if there were any cars coming, or people outside. When he saw nothing, Hayner stepped onto the lawn and began heading for the back door, Roxas in tow."

"Why is this a two person job?" Roxas asked quietly.

"Because one of us needs to keep a lookout while the other gets the box."

"Who's standing guard?"

"You are. I don't trust you with the box?"

"You think I want to steal some old lady's jewelry?"

"Hey, that jewelry is worth a fucking fortune. Pence checked it out last week when he was pretending to be the TV repairman." They arrived at the back door, and Hayner took a key out of his pocket. "That's how he got this too." He grinned, pushing the key into the lock.

"He stole her house key?"

"It was the spare hidden under a rock in the garden," Hayner said, turning the key. The lock clicked, and he slowly pushed the door open. It opened into a pristine kitchen, complete with spotless counters and girlish pink decorations. There were even some decorative plates with blue-eyed kittens on a ledge above the sink. Roxas resisted the urge to gag. "Okay," Hayner whispered. "You stay here and make sure that no one's coming, and I'll go get the box."

"Hayner, what if she wakes up in the middle of this?"

"Then we knock her out. What else would we do?"

"And you don't think that's going to look suspicious?"

"Look, Roxas, if all goes as planned, she won't even know the box was taken for a few days. I've got an exact copy right here, see?" He opened his vest and Roxas saw a large blue satin box in the inside pocket. "We'll be fine." And, not wanting to deal with anymore of Roxas's stupid questions, he quietly snuck through the kitchen to the hallway and out of sight.

Roxas sighed and stepped into the kitchen, making sure the door was almost closed so as not to look suspicious. He didn't like this at all. It was too risky, and Hayner wasn't the brightest person in the world, he was bound to do something stupid like break a vase. He groaned. Why had he agreed to do this? They were going to get caught, and arrested and thrown in jail and then raped by inmates, he just knew it.

Something creaked. He started wildly and looked around. Hayner was walking towards him, a grin on his face and blue satin box under his arm. "Done," he said. "See? Nothing went wrong." He opened the door carefully, stepping out onto the back step. "Come on, let's get out of here."

Roxas nodded and followed him, closing and locking the door behind him. They slinked quietly across the lawn, turning their heads in all directions and making sure that no one was coming. All the lights were out in the houses, there were no cars, and as far as they could tell no people anywhere. Roxas began to relax a little bit. Maybe they would pull this off without a hitch after all. They had already reached the street corner, now all they needed to do was walk a couple blocks to the place where Hayner had parked his car and then—

"Help! Police! Police! Someone's taken my jewelry box!" a woman screamed very suddenly and as loud as a foghorn. Roxas's brain froze.

_Shit._

"SHIT! Roxas, come on!" Hayner swore. He grabbed the other blonde's wrist and they broke into a run as the lights in the houses around them began to turn on. "Goddamnit how the fuck did she know?!"

"The key," Roxas panted as the pounded along the sidewalk. "She must have… Checked it… After Pence came and… Saw that it was… Gone!"

"So?"

"So she knew someone was going to come to her house and try and rob her!" Roxas cried. There were only two blocks left until Hayner's car, he could almost make it out now. "She probably pretended… to be asleep when you came in the room!"

"FUCK!" Hayner yelled. "What the fuck are we gonna to now?"

"Get in the fucking care and drive like hell!" Roxas gasped as they reached the black vehicle and jumped in. Hayner jammed the keys into the ignition and started it before he was even fully in his seat. "What the fuck are you waiting for, drive!" Roxas yelled.

Hayner slammed his foot onto the accelerator and they took off at fifty files per hour down a suburban street. "Fuck," he said. "Fuck, we're fucking screwed, Seifer's gonna fucking kill us if the cops don't, we're completely fucked!"

"Just shut up and keep driving!" Roxas yelled. The blonde made a sharp turn onto a main road and shot down it like a bullet, paying almost no attention to the other cars. They almost ran into one on several occasions until they reached another main road. Hayner turned left onto it and kept driving for about five blocks before turning sharply into an open garage tucked into an alleyway. Roxas heard the sides of the car scrapping against the brick wall; there wasn't much room to maneuver and Hayner hadn't taken the time to make sure he had space on both sides.

"FUCK!" he yelled again. "Great, just fucking great, now my car's fucking scratched—"

"Forget about the car, we gotta hide!" Roxas said, jumping out as soon Hayner had stopped in the garage. "Where the hell are we going to go?"

"Well where the hell should we go?" Hayner said, turning off the car and getting out. "Seifer's sure as hell not gonna let us crash with him—"

"Olette," Roxas cut him off. "Olette will hide us, nobody would ever expect her to be involved in crime, they won't come looking for a while." He sprinted out of the garage and down the street. He heard Hayner behind him, panting as they ran several blocks, turned a corner, ran some more, then turned onto the street Olette lived.

"Which one is hers?" Hayner asked, running along side him now.

"The one at the end of the street, next to the woods!" Roxas answered. "I can see it from here!" It was a dark house with a front porch and a one car garage. Roxas could just barely make it out against the darkness of the trees standing next to it. They ran until they reached it and then skidded to a halt. Hayner doubled over, wheezing.

"Shit, I've never had to run so much in my fucking life," he panted. "Olette better have some fucking be— SHIT!"

He felt the objects hit his temple with a horribly loud thump, and the next second Hayner crumpled to the ground, out cold. Roxas stood still for a moment, waiting to make sure he wouldn't wake up. When he didn't move, the blonde bent down and took the jewelry box from under his arm. He opened it; inside were necklaces, bracelets, earrings and rings that might have belonged to queen. He smiled, and pulled a plastic bag out of his pocket.

"Thank for your hard work, Hayner," he addressed the unconscious body, smirking. He poured the contents of the box into the bag, then closed it and slipped it back under his arm. "Even if you did almost get us caught, you stupid fucker." He stood up, looked around quickly to make sure no one was watching, then he took off at a sprint as disappeared into the woods.

* * *

It was almost three in the morning by the time Roxas reached the shabby motel in the small town of Goldfield, about thirty minutes away from Twilight Town. He gave one thousand munny to the truck driver who had given him a ride, then quickly made his way to room 24. 

"You're late," a female voice said as he opened the door. A small blonde girl was sitting on the left side of the bed; her large blue eyes locked on him as he entered the room and closed the door. "What took you so long?"

"Hayner almost got us caught, so we had to run to Olette's before I could take the jewelry," he explained, throwing his jacket carelessly on the floor and taking a seat next to his sister.

"Where is it?" she asked.

"Right here." He held up the bag, which glinted even in the dim light of the motel room. "One full box of Aurorian jewels, courtesy of Merryweather Blue." He dumped the contents onto the bit of mattress between them. "You think you'd look pretty with this in your hair, Naminé?" he asked, picking up a bejeweled hairpin and examining it.

She made a face. "Too extravagant," she said, sifting her way through the pile, picking up a piece to examine it every now and then. "All this is too much. Why would anybody want to wear a mouse-sized jewel around their neck?"

"To show off how wealthy they are?" Roxas suggested, moving up the bed and lying down. "It doesn't matter anyway; it's all going to Maleficent." He yawned hugely. He was exhausted from all the running he had done. Silently cursing Hayner, he kicked off his shoes and said, "You can finish looking at them later; I want to sleep."

"Okay." Naminé reached under the bed and pulled out a metallic box with a coded lock to protect it. She put the jewelry inside and closed it gently. "They'll be safe here," she said quietly, pushing it back under the bed. She moved up the bed to join her brother, reached over to turn off the light and settled down under the covers.

"Roxas?" she whispered.

"Mm?"

"Are we… Are we thieves?"

He cracked a dark blue eye open and gazed at her worried face. "Don't be silly, Naminé," he said softly. "We're just kleptomaniacs."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

She smiled at him, and he smiled back. He reached over and took her hand in his, squeezing it gently.

"Don't worry," he whispered. "We will never, ever be thieves, no matter what anyone else says."

"Promise?" she asked childishly, but with sincerity.

"I promise."

She squeezed his hand back. "Goodnight, Roxas."

"Goodnight, Naminé."

The noise of the wind, and the crickets and the distant traffic on the highway drifted through the thin walls, making them feel calm and sleepy. Roxas's eyes slipped shut, and within minutes he had fallen into a deep sleep.

* * *

Comments? 


	2. The Stranger

**Chapter Two: The Stranger**

* * *

Roxas was woken rudely the next morning by something poking him in the ribs.

"Roxas, you've got to get up."

"Nnngh."

"Come on, we're going to miss the train."

"Iwansleep," he mumbled, rolling over and burrowing into the covers. He heard Naminé sigh.

"You can sleep on the train," she said, grabbing a corner of the blankets and trying to tug them away. "We've got to get the jewelry to Maleficent by tonight, remember? Now please, get up."

Roxas groaned but rolled back over and opened his eyes. He hissed and shut them again almost immediately to block out the bright sunlight that was pouring in through the window. Swearing under his breath, he sat up and kicked off the covers, blinking rapidly, trying to get used to the light. Naminé was packing the last of their things into the twin duffel bags they always used. The metallic box, he saw, had been wrapped carefully in some brown packaging paper and had been laid carefully atop her clothes.

"There's some coffee for you," she said, pointing at a paper cup on the dresser. He grunted in thanks and stumbled over to it, lifting the glorious brown liquid to his mouth and swallowing half the cup in one gulp. Naminé grimaced.

"How can you stand that convenient store crap, it's disgusting," she said.

"Coffee is coffee," he grumbled, downing the rest of the cup and throwing it into the wastebasket. "You've got everything packed?"

"Yup," she said, zipping her duffel bag closed. "All that's left are your shoes and jacket." She pointed to the bed where they lay. Roxas grabbed his shoes and slid them on.

"Well, let's get going then."

* * *

It was a ten minute walk from the motel to the tiny train station. The sun was a brilliant golden orb hanging against a perfect blue sky, and already the day was starting to feel hot. Roxas was glad he would no longer be spending his afternoons at Hayner's; his apartment had always been unbearably stifling in the afternoons.

The station was relatively empty when they arrived; only a few business men, some farmers and a young woman with a baby were there. Roxas and Naminé sat down near their train's arriving platform.

"I wonder why it's so quiet," Naminé said.

"This is only a local station," Roxas said, spotting a newspaper on the seat next to him and picking it up. "Most people probably just go directly to Central Station in Twilight Town." He flipped open the paper and began looking for any interesting articles.

"Aren't we stopping there so we can transfer to an international train?"

"Yeah, why?"

"What if Seifer and his gang are waiting for you?" she asked. "I mean, they're not going to be very happy after what you did."

"Won't happen," Roxas assured her. "They're all known criminals; they can't just walk into a train station. Besides, Seifer'll probably be more worried about the fact that Hayner almost got caught than the fact that I got away." He found an interesting article about a tomb raid in Agrabah. "Just relax, Naminé, nothing's ever happened before."

"But we have the last of the Aurorian jewels now," she said. "So that means our assignment is over and we get a new one. Won't it be harder?"

"It'll be fine," he repeated. "Stop worrying. Here, you can read the funnies." He handed her a brightly colored newspaper page, which she took. He went back to reading his article. Apparently the tomb of an old sultan had been broken into, though the authorities couldn't find anything of vale missing. The intruder had left the gold and jewels untouched.

"Wonder what they were after," Roxas muttered to himself, thinking that if he ever had to raid a tomb he'd be more worried about falling victim to ancient curses and magic than the gold. He turned the page and began reading about the discovery of a supposedly extinct orchid in Deep Jungle.

"Train eleven approaching platform three in two minutes, train eleven approaching platform three in two minutes," a voice said over the loudspeaker. "Please prepare for departure if boarding train eleven, bound for Twilight Town Central Station."

"That's us," Naminé said, standing up. Roxas folded the newspaper back up and followed suit. The train arrived soon afterwards and they got on, sitting down on two empty seats. There was no one else in the carriage.

It didn't take very long to reach Central Station, but trying to get through to their next train was another matter entirely. After leaving their arrival platform and entering the main station they were almost run over by the oncoming crowds of people. When they reached the ticket booth to get their reserved tickets, the lady working there took over ten minutes to find them, insisting at first that if she didn't have them then they did not exist, and then realizing that they were lying on her keyboard. Then it took them another ten minutes to get to customs, and then almost an hour to get through, partly because of the lines and partly because the security guards wanted Naminé to open the metallic box in her bag.

"I won't," she said flatly to the irritated looking guard. "Those are my grandmother's ashes in there and I won't disrespect her by opening it for a bunch of train station security guards."

The guards kept insisting that Naminé needed to open the box, finally calling their supervisor over to help. When she still refused, they just gave up and let her go.

"The nerve of some people," she said when the finally got through and began jogging to get to their platform; their train was leaving in four minutes.

"At least they didn't make us open the box," Roxas said, panting as they wove their way through the crowds. "Come on, we're going to miss it if we don't hurry up!"

They arrived one minute to departure time, just as the train was about to close its doors. "Just in time," the ticket checker said as Roxas ran up to him, thrusting the tickets in his face. He took them and ripped off the stubs. "Good luck finding a compartment."

Roxas just nodded and stepped into the carriage, Naminé close behind. All the compartments were full, so they moved onto the next carriage, and the next, until they had made their way to the very last one without finding a single compartment with room for two.

"There'd better be an empty compartment on this fucking carriage," Roxas grumbled as they stepped into the last one. The train had already left the station and was moving smoothly along the tracks. "Why are there so many people on this line anyway?"

"Well, we are going to Radiant Garden, the biggest city in the world and leader in the technological revolution," Naminé reminded him. "It's kind of an important place where lots of people want to be." She walked past him, examining the compartments of the right side.

"Yeah, but why did they all have to take _this_ train?" he groaned, looking into another compartment and finding it full.

"Here," Naminé called. "This one's pretty empty; there's only one person."

"Finally," Roxas said, walking down to join his sister. They peered inside the compartment; its only occupant was what Roxas assumed was a man, although they could not see his face because of the newspaper he held in front of him. He was wearing a long dark brown trench coat, black leather gloves, dark-tinted glasses and a hat the covered his entire head. Roxas thought he looked like the kind of stranger parents warned their kids about. The blonde boy opened the door hesitantly.

"Excuse me," he said timidly, and the stranger looked up. "But can we sit here? Everywhere else is full."

"By all means," the stranger replied in a gravelly voice, gesturing with one hand towards the seat opposite him. The two siblings entered the compartment and set their bags on the rack above their heads before sitting down onto the seat. Naminé had grabbed two books from her bag and handed one to Roxas. He took it gratefully.

The three passengers were relatively silent, the only noise being the occasional turning of a page and the hum of the train as it ran its course. After what must have been two hours, the stranger folded up his newspaper and placed it on the seat next to him. He regarded the blonde siblings across the compartment behind his dark-tinted glasses. He said nothing, but simply watched them, perhaps because he had nothing better to do, perhaps for some other reason. Either way, it was beginning to make Roxas extremely uncomfortable.

"Will you please stop staring at me?" he asked the stranger in a quiet voice.

"Why?" he asked. "Is it bothering you?"

"Yes," Roxas answered, glaring at him. "And it's rude to stare."

"I wasn't staring, I was observing," the stranger said. "Staring would have looked more like this." He leaned forward a bit and looked pointedly at Roxas; behind his glasses, his eyes widened. Roxas felt a shiver run up his spine; he didn't like being looked at, and the stranger's now blatant stare was unnerving.

"Stop that," he snapped. The man smiled and sat back, resuming his earlier relaxed position. "What do you want to observe me for anyway?"

"Oh, nothing in particular," the man said, shrugging. "But I have nothing better to do, and you're there, so I observe."

"That's… Kind of creepy," Roxas said.

"Not really," the man replied. "I'm not trying to stare at you or make you uncomfortable, I'm just observing you, much like you might observe an old man sitting on a park bench if you had nothing better to do." His smile widened to a small grin. "You can learn a lot about a person from just observing them, you know."

"Oh yeah?" Roxas closed his book and folded his arms. "So what have you learned about me?"

"Hmm…" The stranger gazed at Roxas thoughtfully. "Well, that you probably spent a bit of time in the woods recently."

The blonde blinked. "How did you know?"

"The dried mud and debris on the bottom of your shoe," he said, pointing. "Usually shoes find themselves in such a state when the wearer has been walking on damp ground. Since there hasn't been rain recently, damp ground is most likely to be found in the woods, where trees block out the sunlight and everything is slightly damper than average." He paused, then continued, "Of course, this isn't always the case; forests can get just as hot as any other environment. But at this time of year," he jerked his head towards the window, where the train was passing by a forest where the trees were painted with the colors of autumn (the sky was also starting to darken, Roxas noted; perhaps it was going to rain), "it's more likely to be a bit damp."

"That's a very impressive deduction," Naminé said quietly. The man smiled.

"Not really. It's just a simple matter of logic. There's mud on the bottom of his shoes, so he must have been someplace where the ground is damp. There hasn't been rain, but it is autumn, so a forest is the most likely option. The bits of twigs and leaves also help," he added.

Still slightly uneasy, but very intrigued nonetheless, Roxas asked, "What else can you tell about me?"

"That you've probably been living away from home for a bit; not on a vacation, though."

The uneasy feeling in his stomach grew. "Care to elaborate?"

"Of course," the stranger said. "Your clothes are wrinkled and slightly dingy, which suggests that you've probably worn them more than once in a short period of time without having washed them first. If you were on vacation, your clothes would be cleaner."

"How do you know we're not just poor and can't afford clothing?' Naminé asked.

"Your watch."

She blinked. "My watch?"

"Yes." He leaned back against the seat. "It has bright gems on it."

She blinked again, and looked at her watch. It did have bright gems; small ones, embedded around the face in groups of three at the six and twelve o'clock positions. She frowned. "What does my watch having bright gems on it have anything to do with how poor I am?"

The stranger laughed. Roxas has expected it to sound harsh because of his gravelly voice, but it was actually a rather pleasant sound, deep and husky. "My dear, if you didn't have enough money for clothes, then the chances of you being able to afford a watch with bright gems embedded in it would be very slim indeed."

"It could be a family heirloom," she said, but he shook his head.

"It looks too new," he said. "And the design is too modern. It's not a family heirloom."

"How do you know I didn't steal it?" she asked.

"Because, if you could steal a watch like that, then you most likely would have stolen some nice clothes to go with it. A person who steals a watch with bright gems isn't likely to want to go around in anything less than expensive attire."

Naminé could think of nothing to say to that, and dropped her gaze to her hands. Roxas, who noted that the stranger had not made any assumptions about Naminé based on her meek and timid aura, was trying very hard not to seem impressed. "What else can you tell about us?" he prompted. In the back of his mind, he made a mental note to remember all of the things the stranger said; he was sure they might be useful in the future, especially given his career as a kleptomaniac.

"You've both been highly educated, probably from childhood."

The blonde boy raised an eyebrow. "How the hell could you figure that out?"

"Your books."

"So? Just because we have books doesn't mean that we're highly educated. We could both be high school dropouts for all you know."

The stranger laughed again. "Just because you drop out of high school doesn't mean that you're not educated. And anyway, I highly doubt that high school drop-outs would be reading the works of Shakespeare," he pointed at Naminé's copy of _King Lear_, "and Professor Ansem Keyes." He pointed at Roxas's book, which was a collection of essays on the theories of said professor. "You must have been very well educated at some point, probably in Radiant Garden."

His stomach gave a funny lurch. "What makes you think we're from Radiant Garden?"

"Because people outside of Radiant Garden don't care about Professor Ansem anymore," the stranger said. "They lost interest when he lost his credibility and disappeared. Only his faithful students and followers still bother reading his works, and the vast majority of them are from Radiant Garden, his homeland." He was grinning again. "So, I can also guess that you or someone very close to you was at one time a student of the professor, because otherwise you wouldn't be reading his book of theories. So," he said, and something funny flashed in his eyes for a brief second before disappearing. "Were you?"

Roxas and Naminé were both silent. It was true that they had once been students of Professor Ansem, or Ansem the Wise, as he had once been called, but it had been an entirely different situation than the one they were sure the stranger was imagining. They did not like to admit their teacher, but the stranger had them cornered, because he was right; very few people outside of Radiant Garden even remembered that Professor Ansem Keyes had once existed. Only a faithful student would be reading his work.

"We were," Naminé said quietly, "a very long time ago. We were still children." Her gaze darted to the window. The sky outside was unnaturally dark, almost as if it were dusk at midday. "We were only ten when he disappeared." There was a distinctively sad tone to her words that was echoed in what Roxas was feeling.

"It's not something we like to remember," he explained. "There are a lot of people out there who would kill us for even saying his name."

"Well, he did earn himself quite a reputation," the stranger said. "All that work on the heart, and all those experiments, and the way he was always communicating with the people from Hollow Bastion… It's really no wonder he lost all his credibility when he was found out. Now everyone thinks he was just a twisted old man with a maniacal streak."

Roxas's eyes narrowed. "And I suppose you agree with them?" he asked tersely, feeling that he might have to punch the man if he said yes.

"Who, me?" the stranger said. "Of course not; on the contrary, I think his ideas are brilliant."

Roxas's jaw dropped. Naminé's head snapped from looking out the window to staring at the stranger in awe.

"_What_?"

The stranger smiled. "I think his ideas are brilliant," he repeated.

For the first time in many years, everything in Roxas's brain stopped except for the processing of those words. He simply stared at the man like he had another head growing on his shoulder, utterly speechless. Professor Ansem's unorthodox experiments in the study of the heart, and his open association with the supposedly savage people of Hollow Bastion had earned him a reputation as a psychotic scientist; even the people of Radiant Garden thought he was crazy. No one in the present day thought that Professor Ansem had any merit to speak of.

And yet this man had just told them that he thought Ansem's ideas were brilliant.

"You… You do?"

"Indeed."

"… Why?" Naminé asked.

"Because," he said casually, as if this was a conversation he participated in on a regular basis, "they were. Unorthodox methods aside, his research and data are all extraordinarily accurate, and whatever theories he was able to prove were usually right. He went farther than anyone has ever gone in the study of the heart; it will take years for modern researches to achieve what he did in just a few months." He was still smiling. "He was a brilliant scientist."

"What about his association with Hollow Bastion?"

"How else would he have been able to perform all the experiments he did without their help?" the stranger pointed out. "His association with Hollow Bastion only fueled his work. I see no issue with it."

Roxas, who had just had a strange upsurge of affection for the stranger, struggled to find his voice. "And… And his methods?" he asked. "What do you think about them?"

"What about them?" the man asked. "They were methods of research, no different from any other. And they were far more successful than anything else before them, or after. So a few people were hurt." He shrugged. "Leaps and bounds were taken thanks to them. And at any rate," and his eyes again flashed with something Roxas could barely tell had been there, "it wasn't his fault the test subjects were hurt. It was his apprentices."

The bottom of Roxas's stomach fell out. His heart skipped a beat and began pounding in his chest. He swallowed. "How do you—"

The train gave a sudden almighty lurch, and Roxas and Naminé were both thrown forward with a yell. There was a horrible screech, and then the train stopped.

The blonde male swore under his breath. "Shit," he groaned, rubbing his head. Beside him, Naminé was pushed off the seat and into a sitting position by the man. "What the hell was that?"

Naminé shrugged, eyes wide with surprise, but the stranger stood up and grabbed his newspaper. "This is my stop," he said.

"Your stop?" Roxas repeated dumbly as he opened the compartment door. "But… Hey wait, the train is scheduled to stop until Radiant Garden! How can this be—"

But the stranger had already opened the back door of the carriage and gone outside. Roxas stared at the door when it slammed shut. "What the fuck—"

"Roxas!" Naminé shrieked suddenly.

"What?"

"He took my watch!"

Roxas's head snapped back to look at her. "He what?"

"He took my watch!" she said. She held out her wrist, and Roxas saw that the watch was no longer on it. "He must have taken it when we fell! He grabbed my wrists and pushed me away from the seat, but I didn't even feel him touch it!" She jumped up and went to the window, looking out frantically. Roxas knew why; that watch had been a gift from Ansem. He wanted to help, but his mind was spinning. The man had just gotten off the train at a completely random stop, and he had taken Naminé's watch without her even noticing. What was going on? And who _was _he, exactly?

"An amazing kleptomaniac, that's for sure," he whispered under his breath.

"Roxas!" Naminé shrieked for the second time. "_Look_!"

The blonde jumped up and joined her at the window. The sky outside was as black as if it were night, even though it was just past two in the afternoon. He could just barely make out anything in the darkness, except for…

His mouth fell open again.

The man was standing on the edge of a cliff, looking out into what appeared to be an endless dark ravine. His hat had been removed, and they could now see what it had been hiding; a great mane of spiky, bright red hair, clearly visible even in the dark. He couldn't believe it.

"_He's a Hollow Bastionite_," Naminé whispered.

Roxas couldn't respond. If his mind had been reeling before, it was nothing compared to what was happening now. Standing a hundred feet from them was a real Hollow Bastonite, a Hollow Bastionite that had stolen Naminé's watch without her even noticing, and suddenly his admiration of Professor Ansem did not seem so strange. It was simply unbelievable.

Then he blinked. It lasted only a second, but when he opened his eyes, there was nothing but a vast stretch of darkness. The stranger had disappeared.

* * *

"What took you so long?" A voice, deep and throaty, mature but amused.

"You'll find out soon." Another voice, gravelly and husky, coated in perpetual sarcastic amusement.

"I want to know now."

"Too fucking bad. Wait until the others get here."

They wait. Others soon join them.

"Well? What do you have to tell us?" A third voice, deep and commanding, loud and clear.

"I found Ansem's kids."

Gasps. Murmuring.

"Bullshit." A female voice, high and laced with cruelty. "The best detectives in the world haven't been able to track down Ansem's brats."

"Doubt all you want; I know what I found."

"Do you have proof?" The man with the third voice demands of him.

"Of course." The gravelly voiced man tosses something towards him. He catches it. Gasps.

"This is…"

"The watch."

"So… You really did find them."

"Isn't that what I just said?"

"Where?" Another voice, completely indifferent and yet somehow as laced with cruelty as the female's.

"On the train."

"Where was it headed?"

"Radiant Garden."

More murmuring. More whispers. The man with the deep and commanding voice calls for silence.

"Well… You have done well."

"You say that like its unexpected."

"Your track record—"

"Has been unfairly marred through no fault of my own."

A grunt of recognition. "You're sure they're going to Radiant Garden?"

"Positive."

"Well then," a grin can be heard in his voice. "We'd better get started, hadn't we?"

Laughter. Hollow and empty, lost in the darkness.

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry if the end part confused you a little bit. I'm hoping you can guess who all the characters were by the description of their voices. There'll probably be several more scenes like this one later, so be prepared.

Ansem the Wise's last name is obviously made up; I gave him the name 'Keyes' because it sounds like 'keys', like the Keyblade.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** Kingdom Hearts and its characters belong to Square Enix and Disney

Comments?


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